Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

 Hidden Figures by Margo Lee Shetterly - 349 pages, 10 hour 47 minute Audiobook

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Set amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program. Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as ‘Human Computers’ calculating the flight paths that would enable space travel. A group of talented ‘colored computers’ who were segregated from their white counterparts, used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets and astronauts into space. This true story moves from World War II, when an executive order signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt made it possible for women and African-Americans to work in professional positions in government workplaces, through NASA’s golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War and the women’s rights movement. This book tells the story of courageous women whose work forever changed the world.

At times, it was difficult to keep track of all the names, events and dates in this book as she tended to throw out one fact after another. I feel like I learned facts about some people's lives, but I didn't get to know Dorothy Vaughan or Katherine Johnson on a personal level. I did find all the information about the discrimination and segregation African-Americans, especially those in Viriginia during the 1940's through 1960's, faced on a daily basis. I enjoyed the movie "Hidden Figures" much more than the book even though the screen adaptation portrayed NASA as a segregated workplace in 1961 even though they ended the practice when NACA became NASA in 1958. The movie told the story of the three main characters, instead of mostly stating facts about them, and helped you get to know them on a much more personal level.